


The Dream Team: Season One

by MelonScotty19



Series: The Dream Team [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Blood and Injury, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, LGBTQ Character, Magic, Magical Realism, New Magic, Old Magic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Discovery, Self-Esteem Issues, Spirits, Trans Male Character, for a while, near the end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24994642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonScotty19/pseuds/MelonScotty19
Series: The Dream Team [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809397
Kudos: 1





	1. In Prima Somnium

The project was a long shot, but one the higher-ups were willing to take.

Who had ever heard of bridging two alternate dimensions, anyway? One man says he’s proved it and suddenly they’re receiving funding to follow his instructions, they barely knew his name, let alone who he worked for before or even his credentials. All they had any idea about was the nature of his research and the schematics for the equipment they needed, which was currently being both manufactured and shipped to them. Special goggles, weapons that were intended to create containment fields when used in conjunction with each other rather than really kill anything, other objects with absurd purposes they had never heard of.

Then there was the main attraction, as the man had called it. The device that would bridge the gap between dimensions by dissolving the figurative veil between them. It was simple to build in the sense that the different parts were easily obtainable, but putting all of those parts together accurately was proving to be a bit of a challenge. Everything needed to be precise, or the wrong dimension would be accessed, and there was already too much speculation about this one.

Therein was the problem.

That dimension was open to them now. It had opened halfway through the assembly of the inter-dimensional hole-puncher they had been building. But nothing was seeming to happen.

It was completely silent. Completely still and calm. Just an expanse of black and nothingness.

Had they done this wrong?

What had they released?


	2. Episode One: Humanity

It was just the two of them now, standing and watching the stone coffin sitting beneath their symbol.

Derek had long since shed his cape and expended the last of his powers, enough to ensure they wouldn't return anytime soon. Paris couldn't bring herself to do the same, like holding onto part of the past would bring the most important friend to her back from the grave.

But it wouldn't.

She got closer, close enough to rest her hand on top of the cool gray stone. Resting on the lid was Giana Garcia's amulet, green lace agate and a silver ring decorated with Celtic designs and three rubies held together by black cord. She had worn it every waking moment after losing the Eye, sometimes even while she was sleeping.

She picked it up and slipped it in her pocket with her other hand.

"We've gotta go, GG. Derek and I can't stay here much longer without going stir-crazy, but I'm keeping you with me. You were my best friend, and I can't do this whole crime-fighting thing if you're gone." Paris didn't speak very loud, just enough that maybe, by some grace of the gods above, Giana would hear and would come back from being dead for at least twenty-five hours now.

Twenty-five hours.

Twenty-five too many.

Twenty-five since Giana had passed in her arms after saving her life. Saving Derek's life.

He was behind her now, unsure of what to say to a dead woman. The dead woman that had been just as much of a best friend as she had been a sister.

So he said nothing to her.

"Paris. Come on, we need to go before the others wake up."

A gentle pulse of magic energy met them suddenly, akin to a heartbeat or a pulse.

"There's no way." Derek said, surprised that anything had come from what they had thought were their final farewells to their best friend.

Paris had busied herself trying to push the lid off the stone coffin, it was a miracle anyone had even gotten it on in the first place. Derek helped her get it off and have it make not as loud a noise against the concrete floor, immediately standing back up just in time to see bright green eyes looking up at him.

"Derek."

"Giana."

Her sword and shield were removed, thrown elsewhere with no care for what noise they made. Giana was lifted out of her resting place now that it was evident that she no longer needed it, Paris hugged both of them since Giana refused to be set down by Derek, "Weak legs," she claimed.

They walked away from their old life together, the others none the wiser.

That had been at least four months ago, if not more.

Paris watched Giana wash the last of the red dye -which had turned a pinkish color a few weeks back- out of her hair, leaving just the blonde ends as her hair had grown out since she had first gotten it colored.

"Hate the pink, love the red. Is that weird?" She was talking over her shoulder since her hair was still dripping into the sink. She had wrung it out at least six times with no change.

"Pink isn't for you. Hold still." Paris wrung her hair again, more forcefully this time. A wall of water came from the curling strands as Giana protested, grabbing at Paris' hands and her own scalp.

"I get it, I get it, let go, will ya?"

"If you go back home with bald patches that's not my fault."

"Kinda is!" Giana laughed, imagining her dad's face if Paris really did pull her hair out. Pale, bald patches on her head would be the subject of many questions and, later, jokes they would both have fun with making. Her dad was very good at making jokes and she often found herself laughing just as hard at them.

Derek was laughing at both of them from the table, eating pancakes made by the current subject of Paris' hands while the two of them worked against each other until Giana's hair was properly wrung and she still had more than enough on her head. The girls sat down to eat their now cooled-off pancakes, made at the wonderful hour of three in the morning when they all found themselves starving after hours and hours of playing Overwatch. To them, this was the height of life, one of those moments they would make last forever if they at all could.

No memories of death, no feelings of dread. Simply friendship, and hope, but for what no one really knew.

They wouldn't know, until much, much later

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Giana's eyes trained on her computer as she tried to find the problem in the network. Something wasn't working right with the internet at her house, and she had always been pretty decent with computers after the incident with her 'death', so she took to finding the issue. It wasn't a hard find, no need to make any phone calls or even look anything up to help her, she simply.. knew what to do.

The issue wasn't listed as malware, or even as a threat. Just a bunch of numbers and letters accidentally slowing the connection. A simple boot from service and a blocker later, the internet was working as usual, and the issue didn't make a return.

With the issue settled, Giana turned to scrolling through Twitter, wondering briefly what Paris was up to, since usually she was awake and at it by now. She had given up her 'Paris' identity once they'd come back to normal life, so now she was just Ari, just as she should be.

The world felt different now that Giana no longer had her powers over the earth and its elements. Almost like she was lighter, free of some terrible thing weighing on her soul. But that did bring about another feeling that felt much older, and much, much heavier.

Whatever it was, it could wait until later. She and Derek had plans to make for an upcoming get-together, where she could finally meet the friends he always talked about and hopefully make friends with them as well. Life got a bit lonely talking to two people daily, don't you know?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ari wanted to be working in her garden, or even in the woods, but unfortunately it was pissing down rain on her house and she was stuck inside with her younger sister annoying her, as younger siblings are want to do. At the current moment, what had her attention was making bead bracelets to sell, hopefully online soon, but for now, just at school to her friends. Giana had been a frequent customer when the hobby started two years ago, almost immediately after she returned from the dead in a middle-finger move to Thanatos, and Ari had gotten at least fifty dollars off her.

There was a small pile of bracelets next to her, and boxes of variously-colored beads open all around her in a semicircle, like the bracelets were a tapestry she was weaving of all the shiny and bright colors, if you discounted the letter beads in their own little box as well.

 _Could letter beads be used in a bead tapestry?_ Ari wondered as she worked. _I bet they could work if there was a banner that needed text or something, or very fine detail, but otherwise I don't think so..._ In her distracted train of thought she misplaced a bead on the bracelet she was working on, and that led to some -very funny- choice words that could be heard even downstairs.

Minor mishap forgotten once it was over, Ari had a decent sized bag of bracelets ready to take to school the next day, along with a few bead rings and stars to add some variety. Maybe, by the end of tomorrow, she'd have an empty bag to take home.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The energy around the portal's opening stirred, fluctuating between blue and red and violet and white and every other color imaginable. It was like staring into the pupil of a god while its iris surged and raged. When the scientists looked closer, they could see little white pinpricks in the blackness, but nothing else. No land to stand on, no life to be heard. It was an empty dimension, and a cold one at that.

The chilling winds of the empty dimension blew into the facility, making Larry's teeth chatter and his skin prickle with goosebumps.

"Shut it down," he ordered into his radio.

"That's quite a long process, are you sure?" Someone on the other end asked.

"I'm positive."

The hum of the power source in the portal stopped, and everyone waited to see if it would close. The colors surged once more, now more vibrant and almost glowing. The winds coming in seemed to speak, like an otherworldly voice meant to drive them away.

The lights died out. Every noise stopped. Every noise except that wind and the rushing of energy holding open the gateway.


End file.
